Stop. You have no idea what my life is like.
Updated by Christine Gilbert Jun 9, 2017

My name is Christine, and I get food stamps. I’ve had to apply off and on over the past 18 years, in order to make sure my family was fed. I don’t feel the least bit ashamed of myself for this, but apparently some people think I should.

Some people think I and people like me are lazy.

Or that we’re taking advantage of other (smarter, harder-working) people.

Nearly 1.8 million North Carolina residents (including nearly 25% of children younger than five) lack sufficient food each month. That’s why the mission of the North Carolina Association of Feeding America Food Banks is essential. Today on Citizen IBM, read about how IBM Impact Grants for Leadership Training and Social Media introduced the food bank to enterprise capabilities that will enable it to grow and serve its beneficiaries more effectively.

Many of us gathered last Thursday to give thanks and share a meal with our loved ones. We filled our plates and stomachs with foods that are near and dear to our families. We made memories with our family members, young and old. But at the end of the day, many of our grandparents and other older relatives went home to empty fridges and empty cupboards.

Surging rivers caused more misery across Eastern North Carolina, where the Hurricane Matthew death toll climbed to 19 in what Gov. Pat McCrory on Wednesday called a “surreal experience” of waters rising under sunny skies.

Major roads were still closed in places, and water rescues continued. There was progress on power restoration, as outages slowly declined by Wednesday afternoon to 110,000 from Sunday’s peak of 800,000.

The scale of the disaster was enormous and shifting, as waters rose in some areas and receded in others. Conditions will worsen along the banks of the Tar and Neuse rivers, which will crest in Eastern North Carolina towns in the next three days – almost a week since the hurricane pounded an already saturated state with more than a foot of rain.

BY CARLA K. JOHNSON AP Medical Writer Sept. 25, 2016
The idea is simple: Load fresh fruits and vegetables into a refrigerator truck and drive it to a health clinic, then have a doctor write a “prescription” for food to improve the diets of low-income people with diabetes and high blood pressure.

U.S. food banks — the organizations on the front lines of fighting hunger — increasingly are promoting “food as medicine” strategies designed to address, not exacerbate, the high rate of chronic health problems among the poor.
One-third of households using food banks are feeding a family member with diabetes, and 58 percent have a family member with high blood pressure, according to a recent survey by Feeding America, a national network of 200 food banks. Meanwhile, 55 percent of people identify fresh fruits and vegetables as the foods they most desire but aren’t receiving from their food pantry.

BY TAMMY GRUBB
tgrubb@newsobserver.com
HILLSBOROUGH
Seal the Seasons CEO and co-founder Patrick Mateer will reap the rewards of hard work this summer when the company starts shipping pounds of North Carolina produce to three national grocery chains.

Mateer, 23, said the flash-frozen fruits and vegetables will reach about 325 stores this year with the addition of Lowes Foods and Whole Foods in July, and Harris Teeter in August. That’s up from 10 smaller and online grocers last year, including Weaver Street Market, he said.

Next year, they plan to donate 20 percent of their profits to support hunger-relief groups, Mateer said. He also has been thinking about direct food donations to nonprofit groups and food banks.

Raleigh, N.C. (June 14, 2016) – The NC Retail Merchants Association (NCRMA) (http://www.ncrma.org/) has presented a check for $50,000 to the NC Association of Feeding America Food Banks (NCAFAFB). This donation is made at a time of increased need, because for many children, summer equals hunger.
North Carolina ranks in the ten worst states in the percentage of children under 18 who are lacking food on a regular basis according to recent reports. That statistic seems even more critical when school is out for summer break. Children who rely on free and reduced breakfast and lunch across North Carolina will suffer because those meals are no longer available to them. NCRMA is proud to give this $50,000 donation to support hungry children at a time of year when some children need it most.

Harris Teeter announced an $$116,633 donation to the North Carolina Association of Feeding America Food Banks. In partnership with four in-state collegiate rivals, Harris Teeter hosted the Million Meals Challenge campaign to help fight the North Carolina hunger epidemic.

The Million Meals Challenge – a banner initiative in collaboration with Harris Teeter and the NC Association of Feeding America Food Banks – focused on generating yearlong support from Duke, NC State, UNC and Wake Forest students, fans, alumni and campus communities. As part of this challenge, the company invited shoppers and associates to make a $1, $3 or $5 donation at checkout, collecting $$116,633 in the fight against hunger. See more at:

This month, our Leadership NC class was encouraged to attempt the SNAP Challenge, which involves attempting to live on the same food budget as the average SNAP beneficiary for one week.

Here are five lessons my family learned from my experience, after my wife and I and our two children (4 and 6 years old) completed the challenge.

It’s difficult not to feel like a tourist. While the cause behind the challenge is noble, I couldn’t help but feel as though we were making light of the actual struggles that millions of families face. That’s in part because I knew at any point I could “cheat” if I wanted to or had to. Still, the experience was meaningful for us and our kids.

Having a family makes stretching your food budget a little easier. It was plenty difficult purchasing enough food for the week on our budget of $123.20 (4 people x $4.40/person/day x 7 days) You can see the results of our primary trip to the grocery store in the header image. But I can’t imagine trying to feed one person for a week with only $30.80 ($4.40/person/day x 7 days). Having a family of four enabled us to buy a larger variety of food and meant we did not have to make as many individual meals last multiple days.

Giving up food “luxuries” is hard. At the beginning of the week, I didn’t have enough money for both coffee and Diet Coke, so I chose morning coffee and gave up Diet Cokes (my one true addiction) for the week. And I had to forego any office snacks (which are plentiful) during the day as well, so we were all more noticeably hungry by the time we got home at night.

It must be very difficult as a parent to explain food limitations to your child. I had a hard enough time convincing my children that they had to choose between the two generic cereals we’d purchased (they’re used to a selection of at least five or six kinds of brand-name cereals). I can only imagine how painful it must be to explain to a child that we simply can’t afford enough food for that day.

No matter how well you plan, it’s easy to run out of food and money. After the first grocery run, we left ourselves with a cushion of $49 for the week, thinking that was plenty to cover any additional food we needed. It wasn’t — we ran out of money (and bread and cereal) on day 6. It turns out that’s the reality many families living on SNAP assistance face. In fact, a recent study found that hospitalizations spike at the end of the month, when families may have exhausted their budget.